Day visitors are those who travel for a round trip distance of at least 50 kilometres, are away from home for at least four hours, and who do not spend a night away from home as part of their travel. Same-day travel as part of overnight travel is excluded, as is routine travel such as commuting between work, school and home.

During the year ended 31 December 2008, there were 136 million day visitors in Australia, by Australian residents aged 15 years and over, a decrease of 12.1 million day visitors from 148 million day visitors in 2007 (table 23.13).

23.13 DAY VISITORS(a), By state/territory visited

Destination

NSW

Vic.

Qld

SA

WA

Tas.

NT

ACT

Aust.(b)

’000

’000

’000

’000

’000

’000

’000

’000

’000

2004

40 505

30 655

30 938

9 735

11 448

3 958

908

1 422

129 568

2005

41 782

31 604

28 497

9 707

12 079

4 117

904

1 428

130 120

2006

44 229

32 158

28 422

10 463

12 455

4 417

967

1 351

134 464

2007

48 472

36 074

31 614

10 571

13 762

4 608

956

1 680

147 737

2008

44 262

34 592

28 558

9 571

12 140

4 170

940

1 410

135 642

(a) Australian residents aged 15 years and over.

(b) Components may not add to total as total includes unspecified and offshore visits that could not be allocated to a state or territory.

In 2008, 52% of day trips were for holiday/leisure purposes, 29% were to visit friends and/or relatives and 10% were for business purposes (graph 23.14).

23.14 DAY VISITORS(a), By main purpose of visit - 2008

In 2008, New South Wales received the most day visitors (33%), followed by Victoria (26%) and Queensland (21%) (graph 23.15).

23.15 DAY VISITORS(a), By state/territory visited - 2008

Visitor nights

Domestic overnight travel involves a stay away from home for at least one night, at a place at least 40 kilometres from home. A person is an overnight visitor to a location if they stay one or more nights in the location while travelling.

Australians spent 272 million nights away from home during 2008 (table 23.16), a decrease of 6% compared with 2007.

Overnight travellers who had holiday or leisure as their main purpose of visit accounted for the majority of domestic visitor nights in 2008 (49%), followed by those travelling to visit friends and/or relatives (31%) and for business purposes (15%) (graph 23.17).

23.17 VISITOR NIGHTS(a), By main purpose of visit - 2008

In 2008, overnight visitors spent the highest proportion of nights in New South Wales (30%), followed by Queensland (27%) and Victoria (19%) (graph 23.18).